Jekyll planning will be watched by entire state

Posted: Wednesday, January 10, 2007

The Jekyll Island Authority's move to redevelop the faltering barrier island will be watched closely across the entire state.

The 7.5-mile-long, 5,700-acre island - Georgia's smallest barrier island - is close to the hearts of thousands of Georgians. Talk to any longtime resident of the state about Jekyll Island, and you're likely to hear a story or two about family vacations there, or time spent as a youngster at the University of Georgia's 4-H Center, or trips to business and professional conventions held there.

Sadly, those stories aren't heard as frequently, and aren't told as enthusiastically, as they once were. Over the years, the island's lodging and convention facilities have become outdated. Jekyll is no longer the popular, affordable vacation choice for families that it once was, and its convention business has moved to other, updated locales.

So it's clear the Jekyll Island Authority, the island's governing body, is on the right track with its Monday decision to hire a consultant to help develop a new master plan for the place. But it's just as clear, given the connection that large numbers of Georgians have with Jekyll, that development of the master plan will be watched closely. Thus, in addition to being mindful of the wishes of residents and business and commercial interests now on the island, the authority also will have to be mindful of the wishes of those Georgians who would like the chance to once again try Jekyll as a vacation or convention destination.

There is a chance, though, that Jekyll Island could be redeveloped in such a manner as to keep it out of reach of many families and at least some convention business. According to a December story in The Brunswick News, a coastal Georgia newspaper, two major developers are proposing a couple of upscale projects on the island. E. Wade Shealy, who developed Hampton Plantation near Savannah, has proposed building hundreds of beachfront condominiums and homes. Mercer Reynolds, developer of Reynolds Plantation on Lake Oconee in Greensboro, favors converting one of the island's public golf courses into a private club, according to the Brunswick newspaper.

Environmental concerns likely will be a factor in discussion of Jekyll's redevelopment. Part-time Jekyll resident Dory Ingram expressed concern to the Brunswick newspaper that beachfront development could adversely affect the endangered loggerhead sea turtle. Ingram told the newspaper that last year, 323 loggerhead nests were counted on the undeveloped Cumberland Island, a national park, while 137 such nests were documented on Jekyll Island, and just one nest was found on heavily developed St. Simons Island nearby.

Ingram's concerns are no doubt genuine, but it's easy to think that she, and other Jekyll residents, simply don't want any kind of development coming to the relatively tiny sliver of barrier island that they call home, and are ready to make any kind of argument to keep that development at bay.

While state law limits development to just 35 percent of Jekyll's land area, that limitation will do little to make the Jekyll Island Authority's decisions on redevelopment any easier. There is probably a balance to be found among the competing interests of Georgians looking for an affordable vacation spot, Jekyll residents who don't want their home to become a high-end development like South Carolina's crowded Hilton Head Island, and legitimate environmental concerns. The authority's job, admittedly a difficult one, is to find that balance, ensuring a viable future for Jekyll Island while returning a measure of the past to it.